Innocent abroad - or another ugly American?

Not since the colonists dumped the tea overboard in Boston Harbor have the Brits been so offended by  an American political act.  We refer, of course, to the outrage expressed by Prime Minister David Cameron and others on  down in booming headlines  over Mitt Romney's suspicion that our Anglo-Saxon friends might not be up to staging a successful Olympics.

Wasn't Romney the one boastfully slamming President Obama for hurting our international relations  like a raw kid at the rear of the class?  Meantime, we'll never know the details of Mitt's own stewardship of the 2002 Winter Olympics back home because somehow all of the records  have been destroyed..

Way  to go, Willard!   Time to get out of the islands  before they send in the Redcoats.  The country knows Churchillian prose - and you're no Winnie.

P.S.  If you had trouble remembering the name of labor party leader Ed Miliband as he stood aside you, take a cue from Sister Palin: Next time, write it on the palm of your hand.

The jeering from Rat Wing's Mt Olympus

HAS THERE ever been anything more politically degenerate than the Rat Wing's (as it is pronounced in some Southern precincts) eruptions of glee that the Olympics are not going to Chicago? We can only wonder what the response would have been if Dallas or Phoenix had been in play. The White House should fear the season's first snow storm. It will be Barack Obama's fault!

AS I gathered up my Sunday newspapers, I noticed that the Beacon Journal and Plain Dealer had featured a major flu story on the front page. A closer look told me that the same stories had run under the byline of Plain Dealer Reporter Diane Suchetka. The papers are still breathing, but competition and the once important reporter's personal satisfaction of his/her exclusive work are gone forever. It is now cookie-cutter journalism, folks.

NOW THAT Greece has elected a bona fide socialist government, does it mean that those of us who belong to the Zorba fan club are traitors? I should add that a stuffed grape leaf under a socialist government is still tasty.